The Gelato Hunt

What to do for the weekend...what to do...? Florence? OK!

So, Susan, Diana and I hopped on a train at 7 in the morning, and went

We had to take a bus into town from the train station...this very gross stain was on the window...must have been a good omen.

Inside San Marco, under complete restoration, so not very inviting...

We were wondering where to find the David, and there weren't any signs in sight...not a single one...nowhere. (sarcasm, if you didn't catch it)

"Dov'e David?" ("Where is David?") Map of the Accedemia, and still, no sign of where to find David! (still sarcastic)

OMG! we found the David! (No photos allowed...I'm really bad at following the rules, apparently) Didn't know if you knew, but apparently, Michelangelo is a big deal, and this statue is kinda important.

Diana points out our miraculous find!

We just couldn't find any David souvenirs anywhere! (Sorry, I'll stop the sarcasm eventually, but not yet...it was too much fun)

David's jewels on a postcard...made to look like a face. Tourism is ruining the world...but this was hysterical.

The duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore, one of the most beautiful domes in the world. You will see why soon...

Tourists looking up at the duomo

Us in front of the the baptistery of San Giovianni, belonging to the Santa Maria del Fiore. We are in front of the famed golden baptistery doors by Ghiberti done in the 15th century. These doors aren't the real ones however. The real ones are in a tiny museum behind the church.

Santa Maria del Fiore front facade

The baptistery doors depict scenes from the old testament

Inside Santa Maria del Fiore

We decided to climb the dome. I have a personal interest in climbing to the highest building point of every city I've had the chance to. Fun stuff. Here, we are halfway up, sweating, tired, and ready to make it to the top.

Dark spiraling staircase to the top, its a good thing we aren't claustrophobic. One lady was carried out unconscious as we were waiting in line.

Almost to the top!

The interior of the dome. The paintings depict the last judgement, among other things. There are some scary pictures of Satan too...cool.

The dome is a "double dome" with an inner and outer shell, to get to the top, we had to climb between the two domes. Very narrow, very steep.

Ahhh, fresh air and a view from the top, looking over the largest city in Tuscany. Well worth the 6 euros.

Amazing.

A view out of a "peep hole" from inside the two domes on our climb back down.

A view looking up from between the domes, teeny tiny crawl space!

Lots of horse poo in Florence...

I can't say I went to Florence and didn't have gelato...that just wouldn't be right.

Not the real David. However, this is where the original David was placed, before they moved it into the Accedemia and put a replica out here.

Look at the cool statue! No, wait, that's a person, he moved.

Florence was having a 160 year anniversary party for the police or something like that...here is looking down into the piazza, parade route from inside the Uffizi.

Portrait of Sforza and Federico from Montefeltro, we studied this in Architecture history too.

The Birth of Venus, by Botticelli, we were lucky it was here, it had been on loan to the British museum...which I was going to anyway in June, but glad I got to see it now.

Amazing gelato.

Santa Croce, we couldn't go in, there was an event going on that closed all the churches in Florence for the rest of the day. But we hit the important one, the duomo.

It started raining pretty hard on us, so Susan bought an umbrella from this guy in the street. 3 euros.

We looked around a while for a place to stop and eat, and we had a guide book, but we couldn't find any of the food places in there, or we got there and they weren't open for dinner yet. So, we took a great leap of faith, and hopped into this little mom and pop restaurant behind the market, and had one of the most amazing meals we've had on this trip. Our plates were all cleaned.

the Sex and the City movie is big over in Italy too!

This is where I parted from Susan and Diana, as they took the fast train back to Rome, and I decided to save 20 euros, and take the slow one back alone. So, I had about an hour to kill, so I wandered around to look at some of the nightlife.

Then I made my way back to the train station...

...and headed back to Roma, my homa.

I fell asleep on the train, and when I woke up, I was in Termini in Rome, and the train had been stopped for a good half hour...nobody came through the cars apparently to check if anyone was there...kinda scary actually. But, I made it home safe and sound.

Our last official "field trip" with our class. Sad. However, it was a good one. We charter bused it to Tivoli, a small city a little less than an hour out of Rome, and saw Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este, both places we studied freshman year, in ARCH 200, when we learned a general overview of architecture history and diagramming. Let me tell ya, these places are way cooler to see in person, than to look at on a slide show in a lecture hall.

Duck on the side of the pond at Hadrian's Villa

The Cyprus trees are HUGE.

part of the villa ruins, which part? don't remember...

Above us is a ceiling, that amazingly didn't fall down on us, although it was only attached by a few points on the walls.

Green water, actually lime flavored. Believe me?

If you want the most amazing view of something, you probably have to illegally climb on something to get it. I'm not saying how this photo was taken...

Yellow flowers, bello!

More climbing on unstable structures...

Temple of Venus. I went over here, and 3 of our guys were sitting eating lunch, and I asked them what this was. They said the temple of Venus, so I assume, this statue...is of Venus. Crazy assumption?

Sign we saw on the way out of Hadrian's Villa

Note on the left: "do not climb on the ruins"

Glad we didn't do any of that...

Villa d'Este!

A villa, that inside, not so interesting, outside, the gardens take your breath away. The fountains, trees and flowers are amazing, and they are all placed around a very formal set of axis through the site. This is the main axis leading from the "front" entrance (not used anymore) to the estate, to the villa itself.

a hallway in the villa

Fontana di Tivoli (Fountain of Tivoli)

The ally of 100 fountains.

stone creature spitting water

Neptune Fountain, behind it on the level above, is a water organ that plays a few times a day.

Another view of the Neptune Fountain

A view from the front entrance, back towards the villa

I sketched this in my travel log. Behind me is the water organ, and I am looking over the Neptune Fountain

The water organ

One last view of the 100 fountains. Some of the water here is potable, other water is not, I'm not sure about this stuff, but it was a hot day, and this guy needed some refreshing.

I have OODLES of more photos from these two places, if you wanna see, please bug me when I get back.